Taken from La Vitrine Technologie-Education Newsletter, Number 63 / February 3, 2010
“Clickers are remote controllike devices that allow students to anonymously answer multiple-choice questions at the click of a button. Here are some videos produced by the University of Colorado Science Education Initiative (CU-SEI) and the University of British Columbia Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) that show some benefits & practical tips that come from using this new technology.”
To view the videos, visit University of British Columbia Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI)
“Clickers are remote control-like devices that allow students to anonymously answer multiple-choice questions at the click of a button; the results can immediately be tallied and shown to the class. Read-on to see how they can also become a powerful facilitator of discussions and increase student engagement.” – Taken from La Vitrine Technologie-Éducation Newsletter, Number 62, January 18 2010.
Read more (full article)
Here are some great resources for teachers using clickers in their classes:
Clicker Resource Guide – An Instructor’s Guide to the Effective Use of Personal Response Systems (Clickers) in Teaching (UBC): A comprehensive guide to teaching with clickers in higher education – this would be a great place to start if you are thinking of giving clickers a try in your classroom.
Clickers at Vanderbilt University : This guide to teaching with classroom response systems is geared to faculty at Vanderbilt, but is very useful to others as well. It features descriptions of useful types of clicker questions and activities, as well as suggestions for handling some common challenges involved in teaching with clickers (you can ignore the section entitled CRS at Vanderbilt as this info. is specific to that university.) However, do make sure to look at the Bibliography section which contains links to many research articles investigating the use of clickers in the classroom.
Teaching with Classroom Response Systems : This is a blog maintained by Derek Bruff of Vanderbilt University. It is devoted to the use of clickers. On this blog, Derek posts any news he finds about the use of clickers. This is a great resource and one not to be missed!
Clickers and Peer Instruction: A simple introduction to Peer Instruction and how this teaching method can be facilitated through the use of clickers.
Here are a few recent articles showing how clickers have been used in several other cegeps. If you have any questions about the technology or want to start using clickers yourself, please get in touch with me! Continue reading »
Keeping Students Engaged with Classroom Assessments is an article published in the online journal “Campus Technology”. The actual software discussed is not available at Vanier, but the strategy used could be replicated with clickers, Sympodiums or SynchronEyes software (all available at the College.) The article focuses on ways to gauge students’ prior knowledge before starting a lecture through the use of interactive software which allows students to quickly and anonymously respond to a teacher’s questions.
Link: Keeping Students Engaged with Classroom Assessments
Staff from LITC have been busy this sumer pulling together information about all the software and hardware available to teachers in the computer labs and viewing rooms. The result is a comprehensive list detailing what software/hardware is available in each of the labs/rooms, as well as information on how to use these tools. All of this information can be accessed at I.T. Help Online. For now, you will find information about course management systems (Lea and Moodle), the Sympodium tablets, Synchron-eyes software, and course peforance systems (a.k.a. clickers). This is site is a work in progress and will continue to expand as more information is added to it. We will also be adding information/tutorials that relate to the pedagogical applications of these tools (i.e. once you know how the tools work, how can you use them in your classes?) So, let us know what you think – does the site answer your main questions or is something important missing? Use the comment box below to send us your feedback.
